Let's Watch the Hallucination Show on the Castle- A May '14 TR *12/3 PTR Link to Real Life News

[amazingact21]

I'm here! I've been curious for months about said deluxe resort, but I THINK I might know... maybe... we'll see. Excited for more!

First reply, Marissa!
Haha, your guess is probably right; I'm not very good at keeping secrets.

You know I am in

I need to stop being so slack and get back on my TR- I have been SOOOOOO busy lately!! Total craziness!

Glad to see you here, Marcie!
I get the super busy life. It took me ten months to write my last report, so please don't rush. We all understand that real life comes first. I'd much rather you spend quality time with your boys than worry about pumping out an update. We'll be here when you get a free chance to write.

YAY Alicia!!! All set and ready for this much needed trip of yours; one in which I'm so glad you did given all the "junk" leading up to it.

Hi, Rob! Thank you for joining this TR. There was a crazy adventure right before the start of this trip, but I'll leave that for the next update.

 

[amazingact21]

Joining! Looking forward to hearing about this trip!

First though, thank you to Alex and you and your family for all of the service to our country. I know my wife gets anxious when I am going to be gone for 2 nights for a business trip so I can't even begin to understand what you are going through knowing he will be deployed for 6 months

I mean, if that isn't cause for an amazing family trip to Disney World, I don't know what is!

It is amazing how a trip to Disney World can snowball ... you often hear about days getting added and rooms being upgraded - very few stories of it going the other way.

Thanks for coming over to read! I'll admit, there's going to be a couple times when I gripe about how exhausting Disney with a toddler is, and I already feel ridiculous for it after reading your report and seeing you and your wife manage a trip with 3 kids. Incredible!


Thank you for your support. So far, we're not quite halfway through the deployment and it sure is long. Now that Alex is away, I can't be grateful enough that we took this trip. It helps a lot to know we have such nice memories.

I'm here! Look how big Landon got!! They grow so fast. I'm sorry that Alex has to deploy, I have so much respect for military families, I have no idea how you do it!

Thanks for following along, Krysten. I appreciate you reading, especially since I know how busy life is with a baby. And, look, your ticker is down to a little over a month! That's so exciting! I can't wait to see little E's pictures from Disney, and they haven't even happened yet.


This deployment has felt like forever, and we're not even halfway through. But Landon and I have gotten into our own kind of system/routine and it's been pretty smooth.

You know I'm in!!!

Yay! Glad to see you, Kristy!
By the way, I've started your Viva Italy trip, I just think I've forgotten to comment. (Landon was probably tackling our dog and I had to sign out quickly.) But I'm there!
And very jealous, if I am being honest.

Hi, coming out of lurkdom to say I followed your last report and am looking forward to reading this one.

Thank you so much for commenting and saying that you read. I appreciate that so much!
I know I'm wordy and take super long breaks between updates, so it always amazes me when people put up with my crazy report lengths.

 

[UGAFan0829]

Better late than never, but I'm here! I'm so excited to be reading another of your reports...back to back reports...it doesn't get much better for this DIS'er!

I totally giggled at how much your plans changed. I cannot wait to read all about it...especially to hear which resort(s) yall ended up at!

 

[amazingact21]

Ok, finally got here, got myself subscribed, now let's see if those pesky Dis servers will let me post!!

Thanks for joining, Wendy! Yeah, the DIS was out of commission for awhile. It was weird not being able to hop on the site and read some updates the other night. I didn't know what to do with the extra half hour of time.

I'm here!

Yay! So glad to see you here. I've been enjoying reading your TR, and I'm already looking forward to writing about my August trip and a certain DISmeet I had.

Joining.

Recently found your TR from Dec and I am on page 25 but then I saw that you started this one so I decided to jump over here and join and then go back and finish Dec.

Sorry that Alex has to deploy but glad that you were able to spend time together in Disney before he leaves and glad that you will have a lovely cruise to look forward to when he returns.

Looking forward to seeing Landon at 13 months, after enjoying all the wonderful pictures of him from Dec.

I love reading about your last trip and all the baby adjustments you had to make every day and the sleepless nights. I took my daughter when she was 16 months old and she NEVER wanted to sit anywhere for more than 5 minutes. We took turns eating and walking around the lobby with her. Super fun times. But seeing Disney through her eyes was just so amazing and something I will never forget.

Thank you so much for reading and joining! I appreciate it.
I didn't know it at the time, but traveling with Landon at 8 months was the easiest trip we've had with him.
I actually was surprised with a trip to Disney for my birthday this past August, and Landon was 16 months, so I COMPLETELY understand what you're saying when you talked about them never wanting to sit still.

That is a hard age to travel with, in my opinion. Their attention span is about 2 minutes and they are constantly restless. I sympathized with you when I read your reply.

 

[amazingact21]

Yay! I'm here. I got your message yesterday, but the servers were busy, so I couldn't subscribe!

Thanks for joining, Danielle!
Yeah, the DIS took a break last week. I had actually gotten some free time on my hands and was like, "Yes! Time to play catch-up." Then couldn't get on....

You guys have a new groupie! : ) Can't wait to read more.

Yay! Landon loves his groupies. Thanks for joining in and following along.

Hi there Alicia! I am so looking forward to this TR

I just read your whole previous TR in about a week, so I am looking forward to taking this one at a bit more leisurely pace

Thanks for following me over to this report! I can assure you, this one won't take you less than a week to read. I am horrible about updating in a timely manner.

 

[amazingact21]

Yay! Can't wait to read all about the trip and to see all the adorable Landon pictures!!

Thanks for joining, Joyce. I have been reading your PTR, I just think I forgot to reply. I apologize! But I'm still there and enjoying the updates.

I'm in! Your last report was great. I can't wait to see more Landon pics!

Thanks so much! And I'm glad to have you following along for this May trip. The Landon pictures will be just as abundant in this one.

I'm here! Great start - you do such a good job of setting the stage for things! I'm so glad you guys were able to take this trip and have the family time before Alex deployed. I can't imagine facing that lengthy separation, but I'm sure the Disney memories help you both get through it.

Thanks so much! And I'm happy to see you here. I love reading your reports and seeing Izzy's experience at Disney. I am hoping you write one for your trips in June and Aug/Sept.

Yay! I'm in!

Thanks for following along, Mary Ellen.

Better late than never, but I'm here! I'm so excited to be reading another of your reports...back to back reports...it doesn't get much better for this DIS'er!

I totally giggled at how much your plans changed. I cannot wait to read all about it...especially to hear which resort(s) yall ended up at!

Thank you for following along, Missy! I love being able to talk to you on the DIS, you're just such a sweet person. And, I must say, I am loving your latest trip report. It sounds like such a fun trip!

 

[amazingact21]

Normally, I try not to write about a lot of non-Disney related stuff in my updates, but what happened in the week leading up to our trip effected our vacation and sort of set the tone for how we were going to handle any future obstacles barring our way. So, I’m sorry for this very un-magical post, but bear with me, please. I promise this will be the only one you’ll have to sit through.


I’m sure most of you, by now, know that I’m the type of person who likes to show my excitement. I’ve got to create countdown calendars, dance to Disney soundtracks, talk about every little detail of our upcoming plans to death. Alex might or might not refer to my system of communication as “beating a dead horse.” (Although, that’s an awful statement, is it not? Why would someone beat a horse, dead or alive? Anyways…)

Before this trip, my brother actually implemented a NO TALKING ABOUT DISNEY rule for when we visited each other. He claimed if he had to hear one more word about the parks he was going to stop attending Sunday family dinners.


The habit of being overdramatic is clearly a family trait…




The month leading up to our Disney trip was a busy one. We had Landon’s first birthday to celebrate, two different families come into town, some major decisions about housing to mull over, and Alex was swamped with work. The bad thing about getting ready to deploy: your workload increases exponentially. You have to prepare for being away from your job for 6 months on top of getting paperwork completed. And the meetings. Oh, don’t even get me started on the number of meeting one must attend...


With all that going on, I thought for sure my normal pre-trip excitement would ease up a bit.
On the contrary.

The idea of finally staying deluxe was just too much for me.

I couldn’t believe we were actually going to be one of those lucky ducks getting to experience one of the top resorts on property.


It was such a far-fetched concept, that the closer the trip got, the more I got in the habit of saying, “This is too good to be true.”

Alex would roll his eyes at me, but I persisted.

“No. This is just too perfect of a trip. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

Alex’s response? “Stop being pessimistic. Nothing’s going to go wrong.”



Famous last words.


I convinced myself to listen to Alex and stop worrying about the little things, and I began packing for our vacation. We were spending the week prior to our Disney trip with my in-laws, so I had a lot of organizing and list-making to do.

Since this was our second trip in 5 months and we were passholders, we became owners to an obnoxious amount of MagicBands:



(You should see our collection now that Landon and I have taken another trip.)


Everything was going great. Smooth as butter….

And then.


That other shoe dropped.


On Tuesday night, April 29th, a massive storm came through my part of the country. It was vicious, bringing heavy rain, tornadoes, and 10,000 lightening strikes in one hour.



The storm was worse than anybody imagined it would be, and overnight it just kept pelting our cities with rain, rain, rain.

Us Floridians, we are conditioned to hurricanes and tropical storms.
Because with those bad boys, we get forewarning.
They tell us to get the heck outta dodge, and we do!



By 5 o’clock the following morning, the base Alex works at issued a command that all non-essential personnel had to leave. The roads were beginning to flood and things were getting dangerous.

I always hate when that command comes through, because for Alex, that means he has to GO to work. He is one those people that have to go on shift to keep one of the very basic operations up and running.


So, with flood waters filling up the streets, Alex got up and called the command post 3 different times to triple check that he’d be allowed on base. They had closed the gates to prevent anyone from entering/leaving, and he wanted to make darn sure he wasn’t wasting time going out in that mess.


He called one last time from the driveway as he was getting ready to go.

He was good.

But between the 5 minute drive from our house to the gate, they changed the orders and now, not even mission essential people were allowed to get to work. Whoever was on shift was stuck there and nobody could go relieve them.

Which meant Alex had to turn around and come home.


And in that ten minute time frame, the water had risen from ankle deep to shin deep. Flood waters rise at a scary fast speed, and it just so happened to be doing that while Alex was on the road.


We own a small, compact SUV.


It didn’t make it.




Alex got it all the way to entrance of our neighborhood before water flooded the engine and it died. Him and the gate guard to our housing development had to push it to the side of the road, and Alex waded back home.



The flooding only got worse; my local area made major headlines and we were declared to be in a state of emergency.

It was nuts!


My neighbors and I stood in our driveways and watched the water creep higher and higher. One of our neighbors worked on cars, and he and Alex went out to check on our car. On the way back, they took some photos of our street.





Thankfully, we were safe and after the floods on Wednesday, the weather remained cooperative and allowed for everyone to start getting busy on repairs and damage control.



On Thursday, Alex had our car towed to our dealership (the vehicle was only 1 year old) to see what they had to say about it.

We were supposed to be leaving on Tuesday, and our second vehicle was so tiny there was no way we could use it to travel.

So the countdown to the fate of our trip began.



Thursday afternoon: “Yes, Mr. W? We have to wait for an insurance adjustor to check out your claim before we can begin looking at your car.”



Oh boy. There were only a hundred million people waiting on insurance claims for wrecked vehicles along with us.



Friday afternoon, T-minus 4 days until Vacation lift-off: “Your agent approved your claim and said there’d be about 6,000 dollars in damages they are covering. All you have is the 1,000 dollar deductable. The good news is, we can start working on it on Saturday.”

Gah!


“I think the universe is trying to tell us not to go on this trip, Alex.”

“Well, the universe is wrong. We’re going.”

“How will we get there, though?”


Luckily, a rental car was covered under our insurance.

Not so luckily….the car that was covered was a small compact car.

A Ford Focus, to be more exact.

Alex pulled into our driveway from picking it up at the Enterprise Friday evening, and we looked at it together.

We even threw Landon’s stroller in there, just to see if it we could possibly fit two weeks’ worth of stuff in the trunk.


No chance.


Saturday, T-minus 3 days until Vacation Lift-off: Alex and I spent hours on the phone with the insurance companies and the rental car agents, trying to figure out if we could swap out our car for a bigger one and pay the difference in amount out of pockets. And then we spent another hour on the phone with the dealership, finding out if they would hold our car for a week if it was completed and we were still out of town.


We were going on a 2 week long trip and the estimated time of repair was around 5 days. Our options were:
Take the rental car and just go see family

Take the rental and do both parts of the trip and pay for the rental out of pocket

Or postpone the entire trip several weeks, until we got our car back in top shape.


I was a fan of Option 3, because Alex got approved to move his leave days because of the circumstances, but his family FREAKED out at that idea. Like, had a complete meltdown over the thought of it.

You would have thought we were telling them we weren’t going to see them before Alex left at all.

But family can be unreasonable at times, and I don’t think they understood the magnitude of drama we were dealing with in regards to our car the rental situation.



Monday morning, T-minus 1 day until Vacation Lift-off: I told Alex we were going to keep our trip exactly the same. Discussions of how to get down to Orlando had ranged from borrowing my mom’s car, to his parents renting a minivan and coming up to our place to pick us up. (At the time, there were no bigger vehicles to rent ANYWHERE. The companies were having to ship in new cars daily because so many people needed them.)

Alex called the Enterprise branch that afternoon, found out they would have an SUV available at noon the following day that we could upgrade to at our own cost.

Fine. Whatever.

Do it.

If it gets us to Disney we’ll pay it. What’s a couple hundred extra on top of our deductible?


Tuesday morning, T-minus 8 hours until Vacation Lift-off: Alex went to Enterprise to exchange vehicles.

When he got there, another agent had rented out the car already, not bothering to look and see if it was on hold.

Ahhh, jeeeeeeez.

Really?

REALLY??

The agent felt terrible about the situation and offered us an extra upgrade at no cost.

When Alex called and told me this, I thought about our streak of bad luck and simply said, “Get the price in writing.”

I had a bad feeling about it.

And, as it would turn out later (in the middle of the Magic Kingdom) I was right in being so persistent.


But anyways, we went from an itsy bitsy Focus to a Buick Enclave.

The big daddy of luxury SUVs. It was massive!

So much trunk space!

A parent’s dream.

And the seats, they were like driving in Lazy Boys.


A mom could get used to this kind of cruising.




After what felt like YEARS, Alex and I were finally ready to go on vacation. Never mind the stress of our car being broken, not having transportation, the unexpected expenses, and the deployment still shaking its ugly fist in the back our heads.


We were going to Disney, gosh darn it!

Come heck or high water!


...Literally.






Up Next...They Have Real Towels in the Bathrooms

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Look at all those Magic Bands!!!! I have a grand total of... one. And because I'm in Canada I can't even get that passholder thing. Just not fair.

Wow Alicia, I remember when all this happened, but to see it all in such detail... it realy is a story unto itself. I so admire your and Alex's persistence in making this trip happen and so glad that it did. You really are a perfect example of where there's a will, there's a way.

 

[jdfmommy]

Hi, Alicia.

I greatly enjoyed your December TR and decided to pop out of lurkdom to tell you so, and to say how much I'm looking forward to reading this one! I'm another one who just has so much respect for our military families, thanks so much for everything you do! My husband works long hours and sometimes his schedule means he'll go 2 or 3 days without seeing DS, but that's nothing compared to the separations you have to deal with; I simply cannot imagine.

And, way to go on making this trip happen - sometimes you just need to do it and pay of the credit cards later! Looking forward to reading all the details and living vicariously through your deluxe stay!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm here! Of course that little family of your's needed a pre-deployment getaway! I can only imagine the stress that you go through knowing that he will be gone for such a long period of time. Looking forward to seeing all of the pictures and hearing all about the trip.

**Edited: Ooops, I missed your last post. Going back to read it now.

Annnnnd, I'm back again. Oh my word! The flooding looks scary! So glad that the car issues were finally figured out (well, except for that dun dun dun moment that I believe you mentioned would be coming up)

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I know that pretty much every Disney trip has their hurdles - but you really got more than your share! That is crazy seeing that water and trying to figure out all the plans for you trip and even where you husband has to be (at home or at the base) kept fluctuating!

I can't imagine the stress but I am sure once you made up your mind that you were going that helped a lot as you at least had a set goal and you knew what direction to put your efforts in.

Glad things worked out and in some ways even better by getting the luxury car to go in .... just get it all in writing

 

[Joyciemc]

That's a lot of stress right before a trip! Hope you were able to relax and enjoy after this crazy start!

 

[sahmoftwo]

Long time lurker who wanted to let you know that I really enjoy your trip reports. I had read your very first trip report a while back and I remembered it because you reminded me of my husband and I. Met and married fairly young (fresh out of college here) and husband was in the Air Force. Anyways, since then we had a third baby and while planning for our trip I was searching for trip reports with young kids and found your trip report with Landon. After reading for a bit I realized you were the same sweet couple whose report I had enjoyed! I'm looking forward to hearing about your deluxe stay. We've only ever stayed off-site so I live vicariously through trip reports!

 

[Dugette]

Nice variety of Magic Bands there!

I remember you posting about the storm and car issues, but hearing all the details – wow! I didn’t realize that Alex had done all that checking, only to have the orders change at the last moment. Ugh, how awful!

Oh no, then they rented out the SUV without checking?! Good job on getting the upgrade in writing. Sweet upgrade, though!

I hope getting on the road ended the streak of bad luck!

 

[blabbermouth]

Signing on for this trip report too

Ugh, that sounds like an awfully stressful way to start a trip. I'm glad you were at least able to get the fancy schmancy rental!! Looking forward to hearing more

 

[USAFdad]

Ok I'm here early.... well sort of. I'm going to do my best to keep up.

Oh how fun it is to remember our little pre-trip fun.

Rob I will get back to your report when I can. Sorry I have been slacking. But it is perfect that you said what you did here because I am always saying this and I firmly believe it.

You really are a perfect example of where there's a will, there's a way.

 

[MEK]

Wow - I remember when this was going on, but to hear it in so much detail. Yikes. I am so glad it worked out and you got the larger SUV. It's really nice. But I suspect somehow this comes back to bite you.

I can't imagine the stress. But now that I see the pictures I realize that Alex is really lucky he wasn't hurt or worse. I can't imagine that type of flooding, although I know it happens all the time.

OK - so let's get this trip on the road now! Woo Hoo!

 

[teekathepony]

Oh MAN. I remember the flood photos on Facebook. Terrifying! So happy that despite the stress, everyone was ok, and everything worked out for you (for now, don't like the foreshadowing about the free vehicle upgrade though!!)

 

[UGAFan0829]

I cannot even imagine what your stress level was like during those days. I mean my blood pressure went up just reading it. I remember seeing your posts on Facebook and thinking how awful it all was. I can't believe that your in-laws melted down at the thought of postponing the trip...y'all were going through a terrible time. But in the end, I am so glad that everything turned out okay and that y'all were able to get a SUV after all. Though I am interested to find out what happened with them "not charging" for the upgrade!

 

[amazingact21]

Look at all those Magic Bands!!!! I have a grand total of... one. And because I'm in Canada I can't even get that passholder thing. Just not fair.

Wow Alicia, I remember when all this happened, but to see it all in such detail... it realy is a story unto itself. I so admire your and Alex's persistence in making this trip happen and so glad that it did. You really are a perfect example of where there's a will, there's a way.

That wasn't even all the MagicBands!
They count Landon, even though he doesn't need a park ticket, so he has a grand total of 3, as well. Like a 1 year old needs 3 MagicBands.


Alex and I were being very stubborn about the whole situation. There were a few moments when I really thought we might have to call off the vacation, but otherwise we dug our heels in the sand and refused to budge.

Hi, Alicia.

I greatly enjoyed your December TR and decided to pop out of lurkdom to tell you so, and to say how much I'm looking forward to reading this one! I'm another one who just has so much respect for our military families, thanks so much for everything you do! My husband works long hours and sometimes his schedule means he'll go 2 or 3 days without seeing DS, but that's nothing compared to the separations you have to deal with; I simply cannot imagine.

And, way to go on making this trip happen - sometimes you just need to do it and pay of the credit cards later! Looking forward to reading all the details and living vicariously through your deluxe stay!

Thank you so much for reading my last report and joining along for this one! I always appreciate it when someone takes a minute to read about my trips. DISers are the greatest.
And thank you for your kind words about the military. There are days when I'd really love to pawn diaper duty off on Alex, but for the most part we've all gotten into a routine and are just trekking along. (Chocolate, play dates, and bad tv help, too.)

I'm here! Of course that little family of your's needed a pre-deployment getaway! I can only imagine the stress that you go through knowing that he will be gone for such a long period of time. Looking forward to seeing all of the pictures and hearing all about the trip.

**Edited: Ooops, I missed your last post. Going back to read it now.

Annnnnd, I'm back again. Oh my word! The flooding looks scary! So glad that the car issues were finally figured out (well, except for that dun dun dun moment that I believe you mentioned would be coming up)

Thank you for joining, Lisa! I can only hope my report is half as entertaining as all of yours are.


It was not the lead-up to the trip that I was hoping for, but in the end it made for one heck of a story.